Stop believing these influencer marketing myths.
Influencer marketing has emerged as the fastest way to generate an excellent investment return through digital campaigns. Many brands adopt this strategy to connect with their target audience, resulting in greater recognition and enhanced brand awareness.
But only when done right.
According to 90% of marketers, influencer marketing is more effective and provides higher ROI than any other marketing method (source-Bigcommerce).
The popularity of influencer marketing is set to increase in the coming years due to the growth in the creator economy and the ever-expanding digital landscape. But like other marketing tactics and strategies, influencer marketing is surrounded by many myths.
In this post, we’re going to be addressing some of the most common influencer marketing myths.
Ten common influencer marketing myths
While there are many influencer marketing myths, we’re going to address some that have a direct impact on marketing campaigns for businesses/ brands:
- Influencer marketing is overpriced
- All influencers have paid followers
- Influencer marketing is ineffective for B2B Brands
- The ROI from influencers cannot be calculated
- Influencer marketing is effective only among younger generations
- Influencer marketing gives quick results
- Nano and micro-Influencers cannot provide results
- There are no rules and regulations for influencer marketing
- Influencer marketing is effective for CPG brands
- Influencer marketing is only for brand awareness
1. Influencer Marketing is overpriced
Many people have the misconception that influencer marketing is expensive. If the influencer network resonates with your business, you will see greater returns than expected. So the charges you pay for influencers don’t matter if you successfully connect with the right influencers.
If you still think influencer marketing is too expensive, you can work with nano- and micro-influencers who charge considerably less than mega- and macro-influencers. Furthermore, you can create a shorter collaboration based on posts, mentions, or results.
The key to successful influencer marketing is choosing the perfect influencer for the brand. Our AI-based tool, Social listing, can streamline and make your task easy.
2. Every influencer has paid followers
While it might seem like the case mostly and might be true sometimes, it all comes down to being able to identify who your ideal influencer is and how you evaluate them.
The accounts with no engaging content or lack of a specific niche are the main things to look over before choosing influencers. Almost every influencer will have a community of an organic follower base passionate about a particular subject.
Before collaborating with an influencer, confirm whether they are a genuine person with a loyal following by gauging their engagement rate using social listening and monitoring.
3. Influencer marketing is ineffective for B2B brands
It is believed that most B2C companies only see success with influencer marketing as people tend to have a direct influence on their network. But this is often equated to the tactic not being adequate for B2B brands.
But many influencers educate their followers on B2B related subjects as well. Some of the niche influencers that B2B companies can consider are influencers who inform their followers on topics such as entrepreneurship, e-commerce, technology, marketing tools, etc.
Therefore, we cannot support the fallacy that B2B brands cannot benefit from influencer marketing. Some B2B businesses that have benefited from influencer marketing campaigns include SAP, Microsoft, IBM Watson, Cisco, InVideo, Okta, and IntroHive.
4. Influencer marketing ROI is hard to calculate
One of the biggest myths of influencer marketing is the inability to measure its success for a company’s goals and objectives – not true.
There are several methods in the market to measure the source of traffic, the number of clicks, and the number of leads from individuals. UTM parameters can also be used to examine the traffic and sales generated by influencers. You can also use social listening and sentiment analysis to gauge how they help your brand get perceived in a target market.
5. Influencer marketing is effective only among younger generations
On social media, people generally follow influencers who specialize in the areas of their interest. Therefore, this statement is in no way appropriate. For instance, an influencer in the culinary or fitness industries will have all kinds of followers, regardless of age.
The only thing that may vary is their channel of influence, type and format of content they create, and the audience they speak to – which may have an overall impact on the total number of followers they have; the one metric that has low to no effect on the influence they have on their audience.
6. Influencer marketing gives quick results
Influencer marketing cannot always produce quick results; it depends on how the target audience responds. People who find the content interesting and informative will engage and share it with others, resulting in a positive campaign spread.
When the content receives more attention, it may go viral and increase the number of leads coming to the company. There should be strong collaboration terms between businesses and influencers. Influencers can be encouraged to incorporate the product information in their other content over some time to help reinforce the brand’s message more powerfully.
So, influencer marketing may result in instant results and sometimes gradually build up the effect.
7. Nano and micro-influencers cannot give results
Although Nano and Micro-Influencers have fewer followers than Mega and Macro, they tend to have a more relevant and engaged community with their brand.
Since these influencers create content for a specific niche, their followers tend to interact more meaningfully with their promotions.
According to statistics, nano influencers with 0-10k will get 4% engagement, whereas macro influencers get only 0.8 to 1.4%. This proves that nano and micro-influencers can yield better results than mega and macro influencers(reference- Later blog) – but then again, this may vary based on your target audience and your campaign objective.
8. There are no rules and regulations for influencer marketing
Many people believe that influencer marketing is unrestricted, which is not valid. To make the most out of the tactic, it’s crucial to have some guidelines for running brand promotions across the digital landscape – even through the influencer’s profile.
Apart from securing your brand positioning with rules, the Federal Trade Commission has taken the following steps to reduce the spread of misleading messages on the internet:
- Use the hashtag #ad or #sponsored at the beginning of the post
- Use post header as a paid partnership with “[brand]”
- Disclosure of the brand partnership/collaboration in the video in writing and verbally
9. Influencer marketing is effective for CPG brands
CPG brands may get more success compared to other types of brands because products are being replaced often. Non-CPG brands have also made a high impact on influencer marketing.
Influencers exist in every niche, from food blogging to lifestyle, fashion, education, and many others. And to be clear, every brand can easily find influencers in their specific niches if they look hard enough.
According to market statistics, influencer marketing helped get 11x ROI than the usual ads(Source- Social Shepherd). Therefore, if you can pick the perfect influencer, your campaign will surely succeed.
10. Influencer marketing is only for brand awareness
Marketers often believe that influencer marketing is only for creating brand awareness. Many times, influencers also hold the capacity to educate people about a product or service, which can eventually get them to sign up or use it.
When people find the post informative, it builds the brand’s trust, which leads to increased sales. According to statistics, 8 out of 10 people will buy the product through influencer marketing awareness – but only when your objectives and campaign requirements from the right influencer are laid out.
Wrapping up
Influencer marketing can produce significant results if the influencer can build rapport and trust with your targeted audience.
But many brands often fail to choose the right influencers for their campaigns, leading to forming plenty of myths around the marketing tactic.
Our take on it?
Influencer marketing works only when you have a documented strategy around your goals and objectives and can identify the right person for it – this is where an influencer management platform and a social listening tool like Radarr comes into play.
Ready to revisit influencer marketing?
